MONTGOMERY GORED

So maybe Mike Montgomery DOESN’T have the key to Pauley Pavilion. After dominating the Bruins at Pauley during a 7-year stretch with the Cardinal, the new Bear Coach got a rude awakening in Westwood on Thursday night.

Despite poor play and 15 1st Half Turnovers, Cal was still in the game until a UCLA 20-2 2nd Half spurt put the Golden Bears down, and allowed UCLA to re-capture a share of 1st Place in the Pac-10 (with Washington).

Several Bruins had stellar nights, including Darren Collison, Jrue Holiday, and Alfred Aboya, but as usual, it was the collective Bruin Defense that made the difference. 10 1st Half Steals weren’t enough, but when they tightened the screws in the 2nd Half, Cal looked badly outmanned. The Bears will have to hit a shipload of threes if they expect to beat the Bruins in the rematch.

On Saturday, the Bruins get Stanford, who got nipped by sc on Thursday night by 1 point. Hopefully, the Bruins will “show their thanks” to the Cardinal, for letting the cardinal & gold escape with a W.

"MONTGOMERY GORED" was published on January 30th, 2009 and is listed in Blue & Gold News.